Environment Montana Slams Rollback of Clean Car Standards

Environment Montana, based in Missoula has issued a statement ‘lamenting the Trump Administration’s decision to roll back Clean Car standards.

State Director Skye Borden said the decision was bad for America and specifically for Montana.

“Today the Trump Administration announced that they were going to roll back vehicle emission guidelines that we refer to as the Clean Car standards,” said Borden. “Our preliminary calculations say this move will increase global warming emissions by 2.2 billion metric tons. The law was passed in 2012 and gradually increased gas mileage standards through 2025.

Borden also said the standards have saved Missoula residents at the gas pumps over the last few years.

“Just in Montana alone, we’ve already saved $120 million in gas because of the increased fuel efficiency, and that’s going to be cut short now,” she said. “Fuel efficiency standards didn’t used to be a partisan issue. It was Ronald Reagan that was one of the huge champions of California’s emission standards. In fact, one part of the announcement today was an attack on California’s heightened emission standards. It really undermines state’s ability to set their own emission standards to combat climate change and air pollution, something California has always struggled with.”

Borden said, according to Consumer’s Union, if the standards were fully implemented in 2025, consumers would save $3,200 per car and $4,800 per truck over the lifetime of their vehicle.